Osprey

Unique among North American raptors for its diet of live fish and ability to dive into water to catch them, Ospreys are common sights soaring over shorelines, patrolling waterways, and standing on their huge stick nests, white heads gleaming. These large, rangy hawks do well around humans and have rebounded in numbers following the ban on the pesticide DDT. Hunting Ospreys are a picture of concentration, diving with feet outstretched and yellow eyes sighting straight along their talons.

Typical Voice

Size & Shape

Ospreys are very large, distinctively shaped hawks. Despite their size, their bodies are slender, with long, narrow wings and long legs. Ospreys fly with a marked kink in their wings, making an M-shape when seen from below.

Color Pattern

Ospreys are brown above and white below, and overall they are whiter than most raptors. From below, the wings are mostly white with a prominent dark patch at the wrists. The head is white with a broad brown stripe through the eye. Juveniles have white spots on the back and buffy shading on the breast.

Behavior

Ospreys search for fish by flying on steady wingbeats and bowed wings or circling high in the sky over relatively shallow water. They often hover briefly before diving, feet first, to grab a fish. You can often clearly see an Osprey's catch in its talons as the bird carries it back to a nest or perch.

Habitat

Look for Ospreys around nearly any body of water: saltmarshes, rivers, ponds, reservoirs, estuaries, and even coral reefs. Their conspicuous stick nests are placed in the open on poles, channel markers, and dead trees, often over water.

Adult

Similar Species

Ospreys are the only large raptors with extensive, unmarked white on the belly. Immature Bald Eagles may be extensively mottled with white on their dark brown bodies, but they don’t show the Osprey’s clean white underparts, and young Bald Eagles don’t have white heads, either. Bald Eagles are much stockier and heavier-bodied than the lanky Osprey. Red-tailed Hawks have much stouter, broad wings (without the Osprey’s kink at the wrists) and a shorter, broader tail. Though Red-tailed Hawks usually have pale underparts, they’re streaked with brown, particularly across the belly. It’s also rare to see a Red-tailed Hawk going after fish; they stick primarily to mammals. Turkey Vultures are all dark, and when soaring high in the sky, their long, broad wings are straight rather than kinked.

Find This Bird

Near open water with an abundant supply of fish, listen for the Osprey’s whistling or chirping calls overhead, or look for this bird's distinctive flight profile and heavy wingbeats. From spring into fall, a boat or raft on a lake or river can provide an especially good vantage point. Scan treetops and other high spots along the shore for perched adults and untidy stick nests piled atop a platform, pole, or snag out in the open.